340 MANUAL FOK YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



from punts, are strictly prohibited, as they cause the fowl 

 wholly to desert places where such practices obtain, and are 

 esteemed — and that deservedly — unsportsmanlike, and un- 

 worthy of gentlemen. 



For all fowl shooting on salt water, where the saline 

 particles of the atmosphere disorganize the gunpowder 

 from their affinity with the saltpetre, largo coarse-grained 

 cannon powder is preferable to the finer article, and the 

 best of all is Hawker's ducking powder, prepared by Cur- 

 tis and Harvey. This, with the best of Starkey's central 

 fire-caps, will insure the discharge of the gun even in a 

 sea-mist. 



For the rest, I think fowl shooters almost invariably 

 overcharge with powder, and use shot of too coarse a 

 grain. The shot is amply large, which will break the pin- 

 ion of the game at which it is fired, at seventy yards. All 

 extra weight is 'thrown away, with a positive loss in the 

 number of shot lodged in the same space. 



SS in green cartridges are all very well for wild swan 

 shooting, and in 4 oz. cartridges for a gun of 5 calibre, it 

 will be difficult to say how far they will not carry, and 

 kill. I should dislike marvellously to be in the fair range 

 of one at half a mile. BB is proper for geese or brant, 

 but for all other fowl, for the largest shoulder-guns 1 or 2 

 is amply large for any range ; and from guns not exceeding 

 10 gauge, No 3 or 4 will do more execution. Equal meas- 

 ures, not weights, of shot and powder, are, in my judg- 

 ment, the best proportions for all guns. 



Sea-shooting of wild fowl, as it is practised on all the 

 bays as they are improperly called, being in truth shallow, 



